Today’s issue of Radio & Records is its last. Because R&R played an important role in my career, I thought I’d share a few of my personal highlights here.
I was a charter subscriber to R&R, from its very first issue (sent to me as a small market program director). At the time, Billboard had the big record chart, which I always found laughable because its weekly chart was an excellent guide to which records were most popular a month earlier. R&R was fresh, young…and published by radio people.
During its first year of publication, I came to Los Angeles on vacation. Not wanting to miss an issue, I went to R&R’s office — which at the time was in Hollywood. Hollywood Boulevard, I think.
I introduced myself to the receptionist and explained that I was a loyal subscriber who couldn’t bear to miss even one issue, and could I please have a copy?
“Yes, for five dollars,” she said. I paid the five bucks.
Two or three years after R&R began, I started publishing my comedy service, O’LINERS. Just for the heck of it, I sent a complimentary subscription to its managing editor, John Leader. John liked it and asked if he could use some of my lines to fill space as needed. Sounded good to me.
My First R&R Convention
I have only one clear memory of the first R&R convention I attended, in Los Angeles, sometime before 1980. Each format had its own breakout sessions, and I arrived several minutes early for one of them.
The format editor was standing in the doorway. I introduced myself, and during our brief conversation he continually looked around me in the hopes of spotting someone more important to talk to. Because he was an R&R format editor, he thought he was a big shot. I’ve never forgotten that experience, and I’ve always tried not to act that way to others.
About 10 years ago I received a package in the mail. Some guy hoping I would hire him. Or, as he said in his cover letter, “to join the O’LINERS organization.” No one else ever has suggested my operation is organized. I turned to my one employee and said, “So, which of us should we fire to make room for this guy?“
That guy was that former format editor who had been too important to be courteous to me.
Yes, I enjoyed it immensely.
Another, Fateful R&R Convention
In 1983 I attended the R&R convention in New Orleans. As I exited the taxi and made my way toward the hotel entrance, I spied John Leader.
“Hey, John!” I yelled. “When are you guys going to have a regular column just for jocks?”
“Why don’t you write it for us?” he retorted.
Once we’d both returned to L.A. (where by then I was living), John and I met in his office and worked out the arrangements. He gave the column the extraordinarily unimaginative name of “Air Personalities,” and for the next nine years I was a “regular contributing columnist” to (never an employee of) R&R.
An Aside: In my first conversation with R&R’s founder, Bob Wilson, I discovered I’d had an earlier connection to him. He told me he’d been Program Director of KDAY/Los Angeles. I told him that I was 19, I’d won a Polaroid Camera during KDAY’s “Christmas Wish” contest. “Oh, yeah,” he said. “We gave away hundreds of those things.”
I didn’t realize it at the time, and I’ve never before made this public. But I can’t see the harm now:
I didn’t realize that R&R didn’t pay any of its guest columnists, who happily submitted material in exchange for the industry exposure. And as a writer, I believed a writer should be paid for his work. So during that initial meeting with John I told him I wanted to be paid $100 per column, and I wanted two free classified ads per week (one for my comedy service and one for my Whole O Catalogue. And a free subscription. John said, “Fine.”
Almost immediately thereafter, John left R&R and my new contact there was Ken Barnes (now an entertainment report for USA Today). Ken was my editor. To me, he was the perfect editor: He pretty much ran my stuff exactly as I turned it in. Not because he was lazy but because, I believe, he was a good writer and he recognized that my writing didn’t require much hand holding.
The First Column (The Untold Story)
For my first column, I thought I’d do an interview with Don Imus. (This was back when Don was an entertaining disc jockey and not the topical talk show host he later became.) During his exile from New York to Cleveland several years earlier, we’d had a couple of cordial exchanges and he’d sent me a reel of tape so I could feature his program in my “Greatest Shows On Earth” series.
But now I couldn’t reach him. I called his WNBC producer and said I wanted to interview Imus for my first column. “Call us back after it’s been running a few months,” he sniffed.
“Screw you,” I thought.
Who else might be good for my first column? I’d never actually heard his work, but I’d seen a jock on a panel at a Gavin convention (another name from the past), he seemed interesting, and he’d just moved to New York from Washington, D.C.
It won’t be until someone tells him about this posting that Howard Stern learns he actually wasn’t my first choice for my first column and — much worse — that Imus was.
Because I’d never heard his show, it wasn’t a very good interview. But somewhere I still have the thank-you note that Howard sent me: “It’s about time someone did something just for us DJs.”
By this time, R&R had become THE publication for radio programmers. And for jocks — except for the “Opportunities” section, which many PDs ripped out of each issue to prevent their DJs from learning about better jobs elsewhere.
I’ve always found it impressive that not once during my nine years as a contributing columnist did anyone at R&R request or even suggest that I write about people who worked for their reporting stations (the stations whose reports helped comprise R&R’s weekly charts). I never even knew if the person I was writing about worked for a reporting station. I chose the topics, the interview subjects, everything. Never any censorship, no pressure to write about advertisers or industry big shots. Not ever.
That might possibly be because no one at R&R thought much about my little column. At least, they never seemed to notice.
But once when I dropped off my new column — yes, there was a time in the distant pre-email days when I would drive across town and hand in my latest piece — an R&R account executive took me aside. “You didn’t see this from me, but I think you should know,” he said, handing me a computer print-out.
R&R had conducted research to determine which parts of the paper were the most widely read. The most read section was “Street Talk” — the industry gossip page whose first editor had been Scott Shannon. Second most popular? The “Opportunities” section that PDs tried to hide from their jocks. And to the shock of almost everyone at R&R (according to that account exec), the third most read page was my “Air Personalities” column. I’ve never had a chance to brag about that, until now.
I like to think I would have achieved some industry success even if I’d never hooked up with R&R. (After all, about a million years ago I did win a couple of Billboard “Air Personality of the Year” awards, and I did have two successful radio comedy services.) But it was the tremendous R&R exposure that led directly to my conducting my first radio seminar.
After seeing my column every other week for the first 3 years, the PDs of one radio group decided I must be an “expert” and told their employer I was the guy they wanted to come talk to them about radio talent coaching. And the rest is…whatever it is.
When I was a young PD, I loved reading each week’s R&R. It was my link to the limitless radio community that existed outside my tiny market.
I was lucky that John Leader asked me to create that column and that Ken Barnes (and his successors) let me do whatever the heck I wanted with it. R&R was a class act, and I was proud to be associated with them.
Comments on this entry are closed.
Love the former format editor part. When I met you several years ago at a joint Indiana/Kentucky Broadcasters Association venture, told you how much O'Liners meant to me in the early part of my career, you were friendly and courteous and not looking over my shoulder. I still remember that.
Dan, I can truthfully say that "Air Personalities" was the first place I turned when each R&R showed up. Thanks for taking us down memory lane with you.
Hi Dan,
This must be a bit of a sad day for you and everyone who knew how big R&R was before the internet.
My habit with R&R was to read Street Talk and your column and then the job opportunities and everything else. Maybe because I was never a programmer so I wasn't interested in the charts.
When I first started writing articles for Radio And Production I tried to emulate your columns and the way you wrote – as honestly as possible.
I don't know if I've ever said it to you personally but thanks so much for all your great columns and all you continue to do! To me R&R was you.
John Pellegrini
There has been a lot of good information over the years, Dan, but for me personally, there's NEVER been anything as consistently applicable, fresh, interesting and helpful on a week to week basis since then in any pages as those regular columns of yours in R&R and also the research writings of the brilliant Jhan Hiber, God bless him. They sold a lot of subscriptions and educated a lot of us who are working in radio around the world today!
Thanks for them.
Dan,
I've heard at least parts of some of these stories in the numerous times I've heard you speak, but it's fun to get "the rest of the story" as it were.
Thank you.
Be well,
Bob
Dan,as a former Morning Man, O'Liners was a must-have resource for my show prep and So I say "thank you"> If someone had told me that out "Holy Bible", "Radio & Records" would cease to exist, I would've laughed in their face, but here we are.
There have been so many people that worked there that have meant so much to my career. Most of whom have since left the magazine. Still, you are a part of a special family and in your small way, have touched the lives of more people that you may ever know.
When a friend of mine and I landed our first radio gig with a local AM daytimer, she got me a subscription to R&R as a gift. It was one of the most touching, thoughtful gifts I've ever received. I remember the anticipation of opening that packet to find whatever goodie they decided to pack with it that week. (And the utter dismay of trying to … Read Moreget my postman to stop FOLDING the damned envelope that says "Do Not Fold" right on it, ruining more than a few 45s and CDs.) I kept that subscription up for a few years after that, but in my mind, it's impossible not to think of her when I see that R&R logo.
Rest in peace R & R. Here's hoping someone will look at ressurecting this fine example of what's right with radio.
Thanks for the memories R&R, we'll miss you
It's another sad day in broadcasting as we lose the iconic R & R. What's next? Billboard? No Cashbox, no R & R….GRRRR.
R&R was wonderful, maybe best when Bob Wilson ran the ship. That's when we were there. Since, it's been sold a few times and with each sale, more of the original intent was been diluted. Finally this.
But you're still here, vibrant as ever. The cream rises to the top, Dano.
–Bobby Ocean
I was a PD before O'Liners even began. The Electric Weenie existed. O'Liners soared compared to the Weenie, but both were role models for people who wanted comedy to be a part of their show. Late night interviewers on TV work all day to get half a page of material.
You made a difference for a lot of people, being a staff not a staff. Some really did learn, sit and talk about material in O'Liners and learn to write their own. Kudos.
Just so, the "human" R&R made the industry more real and comprehensible for so many. One more source that said people "could" do well. Served the fcc license issuing language well, the artists, the entire business.
Yeah, that's one thing I won't miss, getting the week-old R&R with the "Opportunities" section ripped out. Now THAT'S an R&R memory! I will miss the old "Blue & Grey Lady"!
Yeah, loved how some medium and major market Program/Music directors couldn't get minimal record service despite decent ratings and qualifying to be a P-whatever.
BUT, IF you knew someone and were politically connected to someone at R & R, even with NO or LOW ratings they'd get you listed!
Once again Politics and Publicity to a favored few at the expense of
Programming and Personalities.
Records companies bought Ads, and hyped their tunes. Consultants influenced stations who didn't do research, and all they cared about was IF it made the back page of R & R. Stiff or NOT!
Rest in peace R & R!
You SOLD your soul years ago as so many others did!
That's why Radio still exists, but we all know it's been diagnosed as terminal.
Its prognosis is…..well we'll see won't we!
In default?
Divested?
Spun off?
Bankrupt?
Devalued?
Yeah, that's the ticket!
By those that ran it into the ground.
RIP
Another tabloid that saw it better days years ago bites….the dust!
Sad to see R&R go. Like many, when I was a baby jock starting at a small station perched on the edge of Nowhere, R&R was a link to bigger and better.
When I was starting out, and by starting out I mean being a little wannabe pest, holding an issue of R&R in my hands made feel as if I was really a part of the world of radio.
One of the proudest moments of my journey through this business was making "Leap Of The Week" in Street Talk. It almost meant more than actually getting the gig.
We bask in the fading glow of R&R.
As we log onto Allaccess.
We killed off R&R.
We as a group(those who post here)
Should ban together and change radio. Will we? No.I'm sure we will not.
As Dan said,we will wait for someone else to make the changes and hope we can join up for whatever change there maybe.
That must've been a sad day when R & R closed it's door, I had forgotten it would affect your job!You gave me some outstanding advice about personality radio.I loved your story about the format editor looking over your shoulder and you swearing you'd never do that to someone..there is nothing worse than for a polished talent to get snubbed..after-all we are in the biz becasue we are truly passionaate,that is no way to treat a person with passion.